The present invention relates generally to paint rollers. More particularly this invention relates to paint rollers that are used with roller covers of various sizes.
Paint rollers allow a user to paint larger areas with less effort than is required with a traditional paint brush. A standard paint roller includes a wire frame with a handle and cantilevered roller arm. A roller cover is generally shaped as an elongated hollow cylinder covered in an absorbent material and is pushed in place over a wire cage situated around the cantilevered roller arm. The wire cage has a circumference that allows for a tight fit with the inner diameter of the roller cover. The user rolls the paint roller through a tray of paint until the absorbent material is saturated with the desired amount of paint. The paint roller is then rolled over the surface to be painted. Standard paint roller frames accommodate one length of roller cover. If the user tries to work with a smaller roller on the standard frame, the smaller roller will tend to slide off the roller arm. So in order to paint an area with different size roller covers, different roller frames must usually be employed.
The prior art in this field includes patents directed at paint roller frames that accommodate paint rollers of different lengths and diameters. (See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,831; U.S. Pat. No. 3,593,361; U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,946; U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,438) These references, however, teach paint roller frames where the paint roller is supported by two adjustable arms, rather than the standard single cantilevered arm. Thus, the prior art does not teach a way to utilize a standard cantilevered paint roller frame with roller covers of different sizes. There exists, therefore, a need for improvements in and to paint rollers in order to allow a standard paint roller frame to be successfully utilized with roller covers of different lengths and diameters. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.